Wednesday, March 30, 2011

An old photo from the Art Gallery and one of Des Kennedy
The Art In Bloom show is underway at the Art Gallery with Gardening experts lectures and more. For more information visit the Art in Bloom page

An article in the Times Colonist caught my eye: Quote:
Victoria designer Bruce Wilkin purchased three rolls of unexposed Kodachrome film late last year after Kodak announced that Dec. 31 would be last day it would be processed -- ever.
Together with Luz Gallery, Wilkin then asked 12 photographers to shoot nine frames each, with the resulting images to be sold as a benefit for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. He said the film was processed in Parsons, Kan., and the Kodachrome slides went to Burbank, Calif., to be printed on the Cibachrome process. "Three rolls of film resulted in 12 unique prints which will be part of the silent auction, " said Gallery Director, Diana Millar. "This is your chance to own a piece of history, and support Youth Art programs at the Gallery." Shooters were David Ellingsen, Big Tiny Smalls, Bruce Wilkin, Quinton Gordon, Mike Andrew McLean, Franc d'Ambrosio, Liz Rubican, Karen Iwachow, Gerald Hogrefe, Jim McKenna, Dave Aharonian and Allan Mandell.
The show opens Saturday from noon to 4 p. m. at Luz Gallery, 1844 Oak Bay Ave. It continues for one week only, as part of the Gallery's Art in Bloom event.
I have my computer and am getting accustomed to the new monitor, printer, and Windows 7. I am taking it slow and enjoying the time spent at it. It has been overcast and rainy lately, so I have had no time in the garden. Pat was out on Monday and did quite a lot of pruning on the apple tree and the plum tree. Daffodils, hellebore, primulas, anemones are in bloom. Inside, I have 3 orchids in bloom, including the miniature catalayea with 2 blossoms.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

This is a fine alpine plant shown at the Rock and Alpine Garden Club's Spring Show of a previous year.
This year the show is on April 15th and 16th at the Cadboro Bay United Church, 2625 Arbutus Drive. There are door prizes and sale of alpines, as well as a very good display of the show plants that have been judged. I have room for a few more little plants. The ones that are growing in partial shade (under a deciduous tree) and in gravel over clay seem to be thriving. All the wrong growing things for alpines. On my specially made little rockery at the back, I have a terrible time getting the plants to survive and grow. My primulas are doing well in the winter wet conditions in clay at the back too. Its been threatening rain the last few days and I have had my income tax return to prepare. So, that is finished. Tomorrow I get my new computer. So, there will be another few days of a 'learning' hill to climb. But if the sun is out... I will be out in the garden... the computer can wait!
I have my photos from our trip to view and sort. Then I have been thinking about getting some of my old web page finished. I need albums done for the Gardening page. When I finish these albums, I want to make a sub page that will show the highlights and changes each year in the garden. One of the gardening albums I finished last year is the paths and garden art, and I rather like this one. The water garden album is also finished in three parts. Click on the thumbnail photos to take you to each of the albums and navigate back with the menu at the bottom of the albums. The Travel page is now 6 years in arrears for its albums. I am especially happy with the Danube River cruise we took in 2005. A very special one. I have bits of each year done up, but I need to organize them into the albums and create each one. The travel notes take a bit of time to do. My town page is still totally in the planning stage. I make the albums with Photoshop and rework every page of each album, of course. There is music on the page so it might load slower and some people may not be able to get the music either. There is a control to turn off the music if you do not want it.

Our Megashot, huge portal for photo uploads, and networking; with critique forum, ecommerce, customization of your own page, communities, contests and much more is going into version 2 and should soon be made. Cyrus is working almost 24/7. I have no idea how he gets all the stuff done. Our membership is growing steadily, too. I need to spend time on the site, also.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

We are home from our camping trip to the US SW on March 13. It was a very good trip with The White Sands Desert, Death Valley, and the Space Museum being a few of the highlights.
I am unable to access my user account files on my computer. I am working from the new user that my windows XP is letting me use. It is my same user account, it just won't let me access all the stuff. Its very strange, since my computer was turned off when we left on the 17 Feb., and would not boot up properly when I got home. I still have all my files it seems. I am just unable to access them. I can navigate around on this uploader on line, though, to find photos I was working on, and had left on my desktop. I have been thinking about getting a new computer, so I might as well take this opportunity ... so my Techie is going to be loading one for me with plenty of hard drive as well as backup and extra storage drives, windows 7, etc. I cannot view my photos from the trip and don;t want to mess about with things I know nothing about to try to see them. Its frustrating .

About Me

I have several time consuming hobbies that I enjoy. Gardening was my first passion. When I got my computer my garden suffered some neglect but for all that the garden still looks pretty good.
To those two I have more recently added photography. Photography relates to all of my hobbies, as well as to travel, and seems to tie them all together.
I have a high maintenance, wonderfull husband, who remains the primary interest.